On Fri, 7 Nov 2003, Sarah wrote:
|> Is there anyone here who can speak up from an insider perspective, and
|> is willing to? I take it no? Hmm. I feel somewhat uncomfortable
|> having this conversation as it becomes clear that we seem to be
|> leaning,
|> as a group, toward the white end of the spectrum (I always list my
|> ethnicity as "Jewish" and not "white", but for the purposes of this
|> conversation, I think I count as white).
|>|> - -deborah
||Well, even if we ain't them, we can still talk about them... it's not
|as if anyone here has said anything patronising or offensive about
|black people. An inside perspective would be valuable, yes, but that
|doesn't devalue observations from outside.
It's the "them" that makes me uncomfortable, actually. We're saying
nothing deragotory at all, but I don't like discussing racial issues in
for so long in the absence of much diversity (of race -- we have huge
diversity of experience!) of the conversation.
When I taught Power of Three to an almost all-white classroom, the
students who understood it all -- many were frightened of fantasy
(undergrads and graduate students) -- said "well, yes. it's about
racism." Which seemed to me to be a huge simplification of Po3.
There's much more there (individual personalities, intentional
stupidity, selfishness, etc) than just "racism". But that's how they
felt comfortable talking about it. Odd, I though.
-deborah
--
Me: Should we install Microsoft products or Applixware?
Magic 8 Ball: Outlook not good.
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